Grapes were reported growing in Honolulu in the late 1700s by Don DePaula Marin at a low elevation now known as Vineyard Ave. Sadly, any details as well as the cultivar name have been lost to time. Historians and horticulturalists suspect it was the Isabella variety but this has never been proven. In 2008 more than 9.1 million pounds of grapes were imported into Hawaii, which could be a considerable opportunity for growers in the state to replace the imports with locally grown. This project proposes, with the help of the USDA germplasm repository in Davis Calif., to test as many as 6 varieties which includes Isabella and others that grape specialists feel have a chance to perform in tropical lower elevations in Hawaii.
The two-year project will establish rooted varieties in a number of lower elevations on different islands under the guidance of PI, Ken Love. Other producer collaborators will be on Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii. The project PI also plans to plant the selected varieties at a University of Hawaii Experiment station in order to insure the future of equitable germplasm distribution to all growers.
All growers in Hawaii have an increasingly difficult time competing with imported produce. Those, like the PI, who have planned and planted an orchard based on a much greater than usual diversity of crops are also feeling the pinch. Still the market for locally grown fruits is continually increasing and requests for local fruit, not currently grown in Hawaii, (grapes, apricots, apples etc.) is leading that list. Previously funded WSARE farmer-rancher projects, FW07-034 and FW09-002 both helped to establish marketable crops in Hawaii. This project will bring together the same PI and collaborators as well as two others who adopted methods learned in the previous projects and are based on other islands. The PIÕs operation and that of the collaborators are small under 10 acre farms that need reliably producing crops to diversify with as each location as a different microclimate and variable growing conditions that must be augmented with numerous inputs. Figs and project FW07-034 is the perfect roll model to follow for testing grapes in Hawaii.

SARE is a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
that functions through competitive grants conducted
cooperatively by farmers, ranchers, researchers and ag
professionals to advance farm and ranch systems that
are profitable, environmentally sound and good for
communities.